A variety of surgical procedures are performed with delicate surgical instruments that may be easily damaged even if the instruments are handled in a reasonable manner. Surgical instruments with dimensions configured for microsurgical procedures are particularly susceptible to damage because microsurgical instruments are typically designed and manufactured to provide surgical utility rather than instrument durability. For example, microsurgical instrument tips may be bent or broken with very little force. Even if a microsurgical instrument tip is not bent or broken, routine handling of an instrument may fatigue delicate portions of the instrument making the instrument unfit for use in a surgical procedure. Accordingly, there is a need for a mechanism to protect delicate portions of surgical instruments before and after surgical procedures.
In addition to being particularly susceptible to damage during routine handling, microsurgical instrument tips may actuate in unexpected directions if the instrument tips are inserted in a cannula. For example, during some ophthalmologic surgical procedures a cannula is inserted into an incision in the cornea or the sclera allowing a surgeon to access a surgical site within the inner eye, e.g., by inserting microsurgical instrument tips into the cannula. Once a microsurgical instrument tip is inserted in a cannula, a surgeon may attempt to direct a distal end of the microsurgical instrument tip towards a surgical target site, e.g., by manipulating a handle of the microsurgical instrument. Typically, a surgeon expects an instrument tip to actuate in a linear fashion with an instrument handle. For example, actuating the instrument handle in a direction, e.g., right, should actuate the instrument tip in the same plane but in the opposite direction, e.g., left, when the instrument tip is inserted in a cannula. However, some microsurgical instrument tips, e.g., 25 gauge instrument tips, are not easily actuated within a cannula because the instrument tips are too flexible. If a surgeon attempts to direct the distal end of a flexible microsurgical instrument tip towards a surgical site, e.g., by actuating the instrument handle right, then a portion of the cannula may act as a fulcrum causing the flexible instrument tip to actuate in an unexpected direction, e.g., right. Accordingly, there is a need for a mechanism to increase the stiffness of microsurgical instrument tips.